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Oregon Climate-Friendly & Equitable Communities

We are addressing Oregon Climate-Friendly and Equitable Communities (CFEC) rules adopted by the Oregon Land Conservation and Development Commission in July 2022 to help meet state goals to reduce climate pollution, especially from transportation.
Community Planning coordinates with local and state planning efforts and incorporate public and community-based organization involvement. We maintain the County’s Comprehensive Plan and update the Community Development Code and Community Plans.

Oregon's CFEC in Washington County

Oregon Climate-Friendly and Equitable Communities (CFEC) rules, set goals for metropolitan areas of Oregon and the Portland Metro area. Washington county will implement measures to:

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  • Comply with Oregon CFEC mandates
  • Reduce pollution from transportation
  • Provide more climate-friendly options for transportation
  • Include the input and needs of excluded community groups in decision-making

In December 2024, Metro adopted an update to the Urban Growth Management Functional Plan that addresses additional Oregon CFEC requirements.

The next steps for Washington County will include updating the County’s Transportation System Plan to meet new Transportation Planning Rule requirements.

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Parking Reforms

Ordinance No. 903 updating parking regulations to meet state requirements was adopted by the Washington County Board of County Commissioners. The changes affect the requirements for development in the unincorporated urban area. Parking changes apply only to urban unincorporated areas and include:

  • Removal of minimum parking requirements
  • Addition of tree canopy requirements for surface parking lots greater than 0.5 acre
  • Update and standardization of parking maximum requirements

Adoption of Town and Regional Center Boundaries

A-Engrossed Ordinance No. 908 adopted boundaries for the Raleigh Hills and Sunset Town Centers and updated its adopted boundary for the Washington Square Regional Center (see maps), making them part of the Comprehensive Framework Plan for the Urban Area. Town center boundaries were adopted to comply with:

Background

In March of 2020, Governor Kate Brown issued Executive Order 20-04 directing state agencies to take actions to reduce and regulate greenhouse gas emissions while also centering the needs of Oregon’s most vulnerable communities. In response, the Oregon Land Conservation and Development Commission adopted Transportation Planning Rule amendments, for cities and metropolitan areas.

FAQs

Town Centers and Regional Centers are described by Metro, our regional government, as hubs of community activity. Both types of Centers serve large numbers of people, are a focus of development and are well served by transit. However, Regional Centers serve a larger geographic area and greater number of people, are more intensely developed and have a more complete network of transit service than Town Centers.

Town Centers in the region include Hillsdale, Cedar Mill and Aloha; Regional Centers include Downtown Beaverton, Tanasbourne/Amberglen, and Downtown Gresham.

Raleigh Hills and Sunset are identified as Town Centers in Metro’s 2040 Growth Concept Map, but specific boundaries aren’t yet adopted. Washington Square is designated as a Regional Center.

The County developed the preliminary boundaries for the Raleigh Hills and Sunset Town Centers based on past County planning work, Metro documents and land uses in the area in coordination with the City of Beaverton.

The proposed update to the Washington Square Regional Center boundary is based on the City of Tigard’s 2024 update to that boundary, which was developed from previous City of Tigard and County planning work and coordination.

Regulations apply to new development and redevelopment in the urban unincorporated areas inside the Metro Urban Growth Boundary (UGB) only.

Map of Washington County parcels with reduced parking requirements (PDF 2.12 MB)

In new residential areas, the removal of minimum off-street and on-street parking requirements means that developers have more flexibility in how much parking they provide. This change does not stop developers from providing parking but allows market-demand to determine appropriate amounts of parking.

The impact to established neighborhoods may be less direct. The new regulations affect areas or individual lots that are redeveloped. The regulations may make it possible for development of individual neighborhood properties that in the past could not be developed because they did not meet minimum parking standards.

We already had requirements that limited the maximum number of parking spaces for certain types of development. State rules provided a new set of parking maximum requirements for us to follow. To meet this requirement, we applied a single set of parking maximum requirements to all urban unincorporated areas.

Parking lots, especially larger ones, saw significant changes. The addition of tree canopy requirements means that more trees will be planted in parking lots greater than 0.5 acres.

A 0.5-acre parking lot holds 40-60 vehicles, depending on design. For building larger than 65,000 square feet, parking lots not allowed to be larger than the building floor area, regardless of the number of parking spaces in them.

ADA parking spaces have been tied to the number of parking spaces provided and that will continue to apply.

To ensure parking facilities are inclusive and accessible to people with disabilities, we established a new rule to create a parking minimum of at least one ADA-accessible parking space, even if no parking spaces are required for certain development types:

  • Multi-family housing over three stories 
  • Public buildings such as churches, schools, etc. 
  • Commercial buildings over 5,000 square feet 
  • Industrial buildings over 25,000 square feet

Related

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Oregon CFEC parking implementation guidance (PDF)

Implementation guidance for parking reform requirements for Climate-Friendly and Equitable Communities, Jan. 6, 2023.
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Reduced parking requirements parcel map

Map of Washington County parcels with reduced parking requirements.

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